Of False Alarms and Future Plans
by Laura x Tennant
Summary: Wherein Rose realises something and is a bit scared of what it could mean, and the Doctor makes a confession.  Ten/Rose oneshot. Set whenever you see fit x


_**Of False Alarms and Future Plans**_

"Oh, _shit!_" Rose exclaimed, her eyes shooting open. She jumped out of bed and dashed to her dressing table, digging through her drawers until she found her diary, flicking through it quickly.

The Doctor roused slowly, extending his arm across the bed to pull her to him, but finding her warm body not there. Blinking wearily, he registered the sound of her rummaging around, and sat up to watch her with a curious expression. "Rose...what are you doing?"

She spun around hurriedly and clasped her hands behind her back, hiding the diary. "Nothing," she mumbled, worrying her lip.

He arched an eyebrow, his lips curving into an adoring smile. "Nothing?"

"Nope," she assured him, casually sitting on the edge of the table.

"Then why are you and your naked body all the way over there instead of snuggled up against me like you usually are at five past five in the morning?" He paused, eyeing her sceptically. "And why do you look so shifty?"

"Shifty? I don't look shifty," she denied firmly.

"What have you got behind your back?"

She cleared her throat awkwardly. "Nothing."

"Then show me your hands."

Rose dropped the diary back into her drawer as surreptitiously as she could and held her hands up in front of her. "See?"

He watched her silently for a few more moments then said, "Alright. You coming back to bed of your own accord or do I have to come all the way over there to carry you back?"

She giggled, and stayed right where she was. "Weelll..."

At the mischief sparkling in her eyes, the Doctor couldn't resist. Clad only in his boxer shorts, he bounded out of bed and towards her in a few strides, and pulled her hips into his as he gave her a good morning snog. He smiled happily against her mouth, and slipped his hand behind her and into her drawer, pulling out the offending object she had been trying to hide.

"Aha!" he announced, springing away from her, waving the diary in his hand like he'd won a great prize.

Her eyes grew wide. "Hey! You...!"

"This your secret diary, Rose Tyler?" he grinned.

"Give it back!" she ordered, launching herself at him to snatch it out of his grasp. He jumped away from her before she could, though, and she sighed in frustration as every time she almost got it, he moved quickly away again. "Doctor!"

"Didn't think you kept any secrets from me," he commented casually. "What do you write about in here?"

"Nothing, I - " Her face grew hot as he opened it on a random page, his eyes widening in surprise. "Doctor!"

"'August 24th,'" he recited. "'Went to the most lovely place today...' blah, blah...blah...okay, so you describe these things beautifully and everything, but..." He paused, and flicked to another page. He began to frown. He flicked over to the next page. And the next. His frown deepened. "...but...but..." he spluttered. He looked up at her with an indignant expression on his face.

"What?" she retorted, folding her arms defensively.

"Where am I?"

"What?"

"Where am I? In your diary?"

She squinted at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

He sighed impatiently. "You haven't written anything about me."

"Everything's about you, what are you on about?"

"No it isn't," he protested. "It's about the places we go, the things we do, the people we meet..."

"Yeah...?"

"But not about _me."_

"What, you think I'm gonna write down all my feelings for you in some book laying ready and waiting for a nosy Time Lord to read through?"

He narrowed his eyes at her. "I'd never invade your privacy like that."

She laughed out loud. "You're doing it now!" she pointed it out.

"Yes, but only because you were being all suspicious about it. I've always known you had a diary in there, but I've never looked at it!"

"Well, now you have."

"Yes," he replied sadly. "And I'm greatly disappointed."

"Why?"

"Because I thought you'd..." He trailed off, his eyes suddenly lighting up. "Ha!" he exclaimed joyfully, shooting her a triumphant look.

"What _now?"_

"You have feelings for me! You said so yourself!" He looked positively giddy with delight.

"Well, yeah. Obviously," she replied, rolling her eyes. "But you already knew that." At his blank look her tone became accusing. "What, you thought I just fell into bed with you because you were _there?_"

"No!" he exclaimed. "No, no, no. No, I just didn't think you'd ever admit that you...er, admit your feelings...and...well, I had thought, maybe, that you wrote about us in your diary but _obviously not, _but - "

" – Doctor," she interrupted, sounding amused. "I'm not a soppy, romantic sort of woman who writes her lover's name in hearts all across her page."

"Well no, of course not, never said you were," he replied defensively.

"Nor do I write 'the Doctor and Rose 4ever' or 'Mrs Doctor' or - "

"Well no, of course not, that would be silly."

She paused, bristling slightly at his comment. "What would?"

"You, writing that."

"Because I'm not the sort of girl who would write that or because even thinking like that is ridiculous?" she demanded.

He frowned, puzzled by her mercurial changes of mood. "Because you're not that sort of girl."

"Oh what, so it doesn't terrify you, thinking about us ever getting married?" she scoffed.

"No," he answered honestly. He paused, contemplative for a moment, tilting his head to the side. Then, "Rose...do you want me to marry you?"

She stared at him, then made a noise of frustration in the back of her throat. "No! That's not the _point!" _she grumbled.

"What _is _the point?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"Do_ you_ have feelings for _me?"_

His eyebrows rose to his hairline. "Isn't that obvious by the fact that I just asked you to marry me?"

"No you didn't," she countered. "You asked me if I wanted you to marry me. That's not the same thing."

"Okay, but _still. _You know I'm completely committed to you in every way anyway, so - "

" – are you though?" she said quickly.

"Of course I am," he assured her softly.

"Even if - " she broke off, the words stuck in her throat. "Even if something's happened?"

"Like what?" He paused, watching her quickly blink to fight off tears. "Rose, what's going on? You're starting to worry me now. What is it? What's happened?"

She shivered, and realised abruptly that she was standing in the middle of the room with no clothes on, so she moved over to the bed and wrapped the duvet around herself. "Look at last week."

"Hmm?" he replied, watching her with concern as she closed her eyes and bit her lip nervously.

"In the diary. Look at last week. Look at ten days ago."

He did, and saw the asterisk marked next to Tuesday's entry. "Well yes, I know that," he dismissed.

Her eyes opened. "What? You know what?"

"Weeelll, I can sort of tell."

"Tell _what?" _she demanded, her heart thudding in her chest.

"Well, when you're...atthattimeofthemonth," he rushed out quickly, the tips of his ears going pink. "It's not my fault!" he added hurriedly. "It's just because of my heightened Time Lord senses and the way we're so...so, uh, close."

She swallowed thickly. "It's fine. Well, I mean...it's fine that you can tell, I don't care about that. It's just...I'm _not_. It's that time, but I'm not. That's sort of the point. I'm meant to be, but I'm not..."

She looked terrified and the Doctor suddenly realised why. "Ohhh," he whispered. He smiled a little, relieved that this was all she was worried about. He sat down next to her on the bed and took her hand, squeezing it gently. "Rose, it's okay."

"No, but I'm _late, _Doctor. Don't you know what that could mean?" Her eyes searched his frantically.

"Yes, but..." He smiled at her tenderly and murmured, "You're not pregnant."

Rose tensed up in surprise. "I'm not?"

He shook his head.

"You would be able to tell that, too?"

"Yeah, course I would. Superior senses, me. I can taste your hormone levels with a swipe of my tongue to your wrist," he informed her, before demonstrating his point with a long lick.

She giggled slightly at the sensation but then grew serious again. "You're sure?"

"Yeah," he assured her. "And just so you know, you'll start your - "

"- it's okay," she blushed. "You don't have to say that."

He shrugged indifferently. "Just thought you ought to be prepared."

"It's a bit weird that you know more about my body than I know myself, that's all," she smiled.

He shot her a smug grin. "I'm just very much attuned to you, Rose Tyler. I'd notice the slightest change in your biological makeup."

"So you'll know before me, then?"

"Hmm?"

"If I ever am - " she broke off quickly when she realised what she was saying, what she was taking the liberty of postulating. " – I mean, not that, um, not that I...er, not that we'd..."

He watched her struggle to correct herself for a moment. Then, "Yes," he replied simply, his tender gaze revealing nothing to her except that...well. That he loved her. "I will."

"Oh. Right. Well," she stuttered aimlessly, comforted by his expression and his words but still feeling a bit lost at what to say about it.

He leant forward and gave her a long kiss, which was only broken when Rose pushed him back slightly.

"But Doctor..."

"Yeah?"

"Is that ever gonna be something that we'll..." She struggled for the right word. "...encounter?"

He chuckled deeply, pushing her onto her back and crawling over her. "At the rate at which _we_ have spontaneous sex sessions? I should think that's probably likely."

He tried to kiss her again but she held him above her by his shoulders. "Right, but...would you want it?"

"I take it by 'it,' you mean, a baby?"

She swallowed nervously. "Yeah."

He tilted his head and kissed her nose affectionately. "Might do," he giggled.

He actually _giggled._

Rose was growing impatient. Why was he such a _child?_

"_Doctor," _she insisted, exasperated with him. "Why won't you ever give me a straight answer?"

Upon realising he wasn't obtaining a kiss anytime soon, he rolled onto his back with a sigh. "Because it might not even be possible, and I don't want to think about that."

"What?"

He closed his eyes. "I can't believe I'm telling you this," he murmured. Then, he abruptly rolled onto his side and opened his eyes to look into hers. "Firstly, please do not, under any circumstances, reveal any of what I'm about to say to anyone we know, okay?"

"Okay..." Rose replied slowly, wondering what on earth it could be that he had to say that would embarrass him in front of their friends. If they even _had _any friends. She pondered that for a moment. Hang on, who the hell _did _they know that she would tell this to? It wasn't like they made regular trips back to visit people they'd met on their travels...

"Also, this is quite possibly going to effectively _ruin _my reputation as the Oncoming Storm, Destroyer of Worlds, Lonely God, ancient wanderer of the universe...and all that malarkey..."

"Doctor, will you just tell me what you want to say?"

"Okay." He took in a deep breath and let it out again in a rush. "Sometimes...when you're lying here asleep, I watch you, and I think...I think about the future, and how much I want you in mine, and...and I also, sort of, maybe, um..." He trailed off, looking flustered.

Rose placed her hand on his chest, spreading her palm right in the middle so that she could touch her fingertips over where both his hearts were. She watched her hand rise and fall as his chest heaved nervously. "It's just me, Doctor. You can tell me anything."

"Thing is, really, it's not...it's not my fault that I think about...what I think about...because, well, maybe it's because I'm the last of my kind, maybe...maybe it's some sort of, I dunno...last biological call-out to, um...repopulate or whatever, not that...not that it would be, er, doing that, but..."

She looked back to his face. He looked genuinely anxious about what he was saying. Her hand wandered away from his chest to find his, entwining their fingers snugly and squeezing tight. "Tell me."

He swallowed hard, pulled her closer, and whispered, "It's really very strange, because it wasn't done this way any longer on Gallifrey, but when I look at you, sleeping next to me, I can't help but want things with you that I don't know if it's possible for us to have."

"You mean, children?" she whispered back, unwilling to break the dense quiet.

He nodded slightly. Rose breathed out roughly at the revelation that he'd actually want them with her. He tightened his grip on her hand. "And I know you're young, so young, and I don't expect you to even think about it right now, but...but in the future, I just want you to know that if you get that um, what do humans call it? Something about the biological clock ticking or something, this sudden rush of feeling broody, then...you don't have to leave me to have that. To find some human bloke or whatever. I mean, I think we can...we can at least_ try_, us, me and you...to, um...do that...if that's what you wanted."

"Because you want it?" she double checked.

He gave her a shy smile. "For you, with you...I want everything," he answered.

"But I won't be...around, not once I've got old and - "

" – stop. Stop _right there. _Don't even say that word," he ordered sternly.

"But I'm not gonna survive for - "

He cut her off, kissing her firmly so that she couldn't continue her sentence. Rose pushed him back again.

"That's why, isn't it?" she realised softly. "You want something of me that you can keep, once I'm d...gone."

He looked away from her, blinking quickly. "Stop it," he murmured hoarsely.

"But Doctor - "

"_No. _Don't make me even contemplate life without you, I can't, I just _can't." _He turned away from her, breathing in deeply.

Her eyes widened. "I'm sorry," she whispered, placing her hand on his shoulder, trying to tug him around again. When he didn't move, she sat up and wrapped her arms around his middle from behind, and pressed a soft kiss to his neck. "I love you, Doctor."

Instantly, he turned to face her, a slow smile creeping onto his face. "That's the first time you've ever told me," he told her, as if she wouldn't know.

She shrugged and grinned at him cheekily. "Been saving it for a special occasion. And anyway, you can talk! You've _never _said it to me, so...I win."

"Actually, that's not true," he dismissed, shaking his head. He grinned widely at her. "Just because you can't translate it, doesn't mean I've never told you."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, that's typical you, that. Avoiding the meaningful words by speaking them in another bloody langua - "

"I love you."

"Oh," she murmured in surprise. She cleared her throat. "Well. That's better. Wasn't so hard now, was it?"

Now the Doctor rolled his eyes. "Had to wait 'til you said it first, silly girl."

"Why?"

He opened his mouth to reply, then closed it again, looking confused at himself. "Actually, I've no idea. Just seemed like I should."

She ruffled his hair playfully, before saying through a huge yawn, "Silly boy."

He grabbed her around the waist and tugged her close again. "Rose..."

"Mmm?"

"I fancy making pancakes," he told her brightly.

Rose stared at him blankly for a moment, then, in a tone that said he was very, very stupid, she said, "I fancy _you."_

"Oh," he replied, starting to grin as she pressed a few kisses to his neck and jaw. "Well, that's even better. I was just being considerate, though, you know. Thought you were tired. Thought I'd make breakfast. But that's okay, I'd much rather do this..."


End file.
